Sunday, October 6, 2024

Navy veteran seeks GOP nomination to run against Luria

(WYdaily file photo/Courtesy of Pixabay)
(WYdaily file photo/Courtesy of Pixabay)

A Navy veteran has announced plans to seek the Republican nomination for one of the most deeply split congressional districts in the country.

Ben Loyola announced Monday that he’s seeking the GOP nomination in a Hampton Roads-area district — 2nd Congressional District — currently held by Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria.

The 2nd district includes Accomack and Northampton counties, portions of York County, and the cities of Virginia Beach and Williamsburg and parts of the cities of Norfolk and Hampton.

Loyola said in a statement he isn’t going to “sit around while Democrats try to destroy America” by emulating socialist countries.

Two other Republicans, Jarome Bell and Andy Baan, have previously filed paperwork to run for the nomination.

Like Luria, Loyola is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former naval officer.

He has previously run unsuccessfully for a GOP congressional nomination and a state Senate seat.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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